The Action of 13 November 1943 was a submarine engagement of World War II. It resulted in the sinking of the Japanese Navy's Kaidai Junsen Type B1 submarine I-34 in the Strait of Malacca by the British Royal Navy submarine HMS Taurus. I-34 which was on a Yanagi Mission; an underwater convoy secretly shipping goods between Japan and their German allies.
The Japanese submarine I-34 under commander Irie Tatsushi, departed Kure on the first leg of a "Yanagi" mission to Nazi-occupied France. At the time she was the third Japanese submarine to undertake such a mission. Code-breakers at Hut 7 in Bletchley Park however intercepted and deciphered radio traffic transmitted in diplomatic code concerning I-34's mission between Tokyo and Berlin. The message was then relayed to the submarine operating in the area: HMS Taurus under the command of Lieutenant Commander Mervyn Wingfield operating from a base in Ceylon.
On the morning of the 11 November I-34 departed Seletar for Penang. Before the submarine would have entered the South Atlantic the Germans had planned to refuel I-34 in the Indian Ocean from a supply ship.
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The Action of 13 November 1943 was a submarine engagement of World War II. It resulted in the...
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